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The soprano Sandra Medeiros was born in S.Miguel Island (Azores/Portugal). She studied at the Regional Conservatory of Ponta Delgada with Imaculada Pacheco and graduated at the Lisbon College of Music, where she studied with Joana Silva. She also studied singing with Lucia Lemos. She continued her studies (with scholarships from the Gulbenkian Foundation and the National Cultural Centre) at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where she studied with Julie Kennard and Clara Taylor. Sandra Medeiros graduated with “Distinction” and Dip. RAM from the Postgraduate Degree in Vocal Performance. Her prizes have included the Amanda von Lob Memorial Prize.
She has attended masterclasses in Portugal, Austria, Spain, England and France with eminent musicians such as Ileana Cotrubas, Teresa Berganza, Marimi del Pozo, Gundula Janowitz, Rudolf Knoll, Christiane Eda-Pierre, Frank Ferrari, Liliana Bizineche, Jill Feldman, Paul Esswood, Richard Miller, Robert Tear, John Streets, Teresa Cahill, Martin Isepp, Paul Kiesgen, Rudolf Jansen and Udo Reinemann.
She has been awarded several prizes in national and international singing competitions. She was finalist of the prestigious Wigmore Award at the Wigmore Hall in London and won second prize in the V International Singing Competition Bidu Sayão in Brazil.
She was member of the groups Capela Lusitana (1995-97), under the direction of Gerhard Doderer, and Azul (1994-98) with whom she performed in various parts of the country and abroad, namely in Germany and Spain.
In 1996 she joined the cast of the Theater play Um Auto de Gil Vicente by Almeida Garrett, as a singer and actress, with performances at National Theatre of S. João (Porto) and Cornucópia Theatre (Lisbon), under the stage direction of Luis Miguel Sintra. In 2013 she collaborated as a singer (soprano), with Teatro Praga, in the play The Tempest (with Henry Purcell’s Music), presented at the CCB (Lisbon/ Portugal) and Bobigny Theatre (Paris / France).
Sandra Medeiros has recorded for Portuguese, Brazilian and Spanish television and for Portuguese, Bulgarian and English radio (BBC 3). She recorded the works Tons de azul (DRAC-1998) with the group Azul and 18th Century English Love Songs (Hyperion Records-2012) with L'Avventura London, having the latter been highly acclaimed in the international press (5 stars and Editor’s Choice from Early Music Today, 5 stars (tuning forks) from the French magazine Diapason, 5 stars and among the 10 best classical CDs of 2012 from the Portuguese Público). Sandra Medeiros has, also, recorded for label Naxos the role of Tirsi in L’Angelica by João de Sousa Carvalho (Naxos, 2016).
Her activity as a soloist ranges from early music to oratorio, Lied, melodie, 20th and 21st century song and opera. She has already performed under the direction of renowned conductors such as Michael Corboz, Lawrence Foster, Marc Minkowski, Philippe Herreweghe, Sir Charles Mackerras, Laurence Cummings, Alberto Lysy, Enrico Onofri, Olivier Cuendet, Jose Ramon Encinar, Giancarlo De Lorenzo, Dennis Russel Davies, Gunter Newhold, among many others. She also performed with the most prestigious Portuguese orchestras, with the most eminent early music Portuguese groups, including Os Músicos do Tejo and Divino Sospiro and with PIBO (Baroche orchestra of Royal Academy of Music-RAM) Camerata Lysy Gstaad, the Warsaw Symphony orchestra, L'Avventura London and Concerto Köln. She is one of the founding members of the Ensemble D. João V and Ensemble Affetti d'Amore.
She is a regular guest at the main theaters, concert halls and music festivals in Portugal. She has also performed in the U.K., Germany, France, Luxembourg, Spain, Bulgaria, Macau, Brazil and Uruguay in venues such as London Bach Festival, Brancaster Midsummer Music Festival, York Early Music Festival, Brighton Early Music Festival, Tudeley Festival, Kölner Philharmonie, Teatre de Bobigny, Teatro Real de Madrid, International Music Festival of Plasencia, International Music Festival of Macau, Teatro da Paz, among others. Sandra Medeiros as performed in the Expo 98 (Portugal) and Expo An Meer 2000 (Germany).
The Portuguese contemporary music has played a prominent role in her career, having premiered four 20th and 21st century operas and works from composers like João Madureira, Carlos Marecos, Carlos Caíres, Nuno Côrte-Real, Sérgio Azevedo, Rogério Medeiros, Eduardo Rocha, Emanuel Frazão, among others.
Sandra Medeiros has performed in recital with the pianists João Paulo Santos, Nuno Vieira de Almeida, Nicholas Mcnair, Alexei Eremine, Alessandro Segreto, Aurélio Viribay, Bethany Phillips, Svetlana Pascoal, Gabriela Canavilhas, Afonso Malão, Margarida Prates, Paulo Pacheco, Carla Seixas, José Brandão, Nuno Lopes, Olga Prats, Francisco Sassetti, Svetlana Pascoal, Armando Vidal and Joana Gama.
Her concert repertoire includes works by composers such as Bach, Schutz, Buchtehüde, Vivaldi, Handel, Scarlatti, Pergolesi, Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Rossini, Poulenc, Saint-Sans, Debussy, Brükner, Bomtempo, Sousa Carvalho, António Teixeira, Pedro Avondano, Francisco António de Almeida, among others.
Her operatic roles include Barbarina (Le Nozze di Figaro) Princese (L’énfant et Les Sortiléges), Siamese Twin (The White Raven, Philip Glass), Dragonfly (The Cunning Little Vixen), Frasquita (Carmen), Serpina (La serva padrona), Carlota (As Damas Trocadas, Marcos Portugal), Donna Anna and Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Cardella in Pergolesi’s Lo Frate Nnamorato, Tirsi (Serenata L'Angelica, Sousa Carvalho), Lindane (Lindane e Dalmiro, Cordeiro da Silva), Flaminia (Il Mondo della luna, Pedro Avondano), among others.
She has worked with the stage directors João Grosso, Paulo Matos, Carla Lopes, Cleber Papa, Anna Sweeny, Robert Wilson, John Ramster, William Relton, Robert Chevara and Luca Aprea.
PRIZES/AWARDS
2009 Finalist in the II Concorso Lirico Internazionale del Mediterraneo (Opera), Bari/ Italy
2005 Finalist in the XVIIéme Concours International de Chant de Marmande (Melodie), France
2004 Second Prize in the V International Singing Competition Bidu Sayão, Belém /Brazil
2003 Finalist in the Wigmore Award - Wigmore Hall, London/UK
Very highly commended in the Elena Gerhard Lieder prize - Royal Academy of Music (RAM), London/UK
Awarded Dip. RAM - Royal Academy of Music, London/UK
2002 Amanda von Lob Memorial Prize - RAM, London/UK
Highly Commended in the Isabel Jay Singing Prize - RAM, London/UK
2001-2003 Awarded full scholarship from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (Lisbon/Portugal) to cover expenses incurred by study at the Royal Academy of Music in London/UK
2000 Awarded scholarship from the Isaac Albéniz Foundation (Madrid/Spain) to attend a masterclass with Teresa Berganza at the International Summer Courses in Santander/Spain
1996 Highly Commended in the Estoril's Interpretation Competition, Portugal
Armando Guerreiro Prize (for talented young artist)in the 4th National Singing Competition Luisa Todi, Portugal
